


Papers and Ink

by dw_fwedewick_heweiden



Category: Bendy and the Ink Machine, Town of Salem (Video Game)
Genre: Consig/Hypno is not the focus of this, Half of salem, I have so many ocs that i dont need to kill off many canon characters, Joseph Drewsph is dumb and has no rights, Kidnapping, Not everyone is safe in this, The hypno aka Kevin is really not the focus of this either, Very Wally and Cole centric, Wally gets flustered over Cole staring at him and accidentally admits his crush on the medium, characters and tags will be added as needed, just like
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-17
Updated: 2019-07-17
Packaged: 2020-06-30 05:21:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19846426
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dw_fwedewick_heweiden/pseuds/dw_fwedewick_heweiden
Summary: The consigliere and the transporter get a letter from someone they never expected to hear from again. This leads to a very different story than the one you've heard.----THIS IS NOT CANON TO ARSON AND MURDER AJSAHKSHKAwhen i say "not everyone is safe" i mean "joey is about to kidnap some bitches also i murdered some canon characters"msfaust please dont kill me i have a pLAN





	1. Letters

Cole is used to things not always making sense. Hell, he works with (and dates) a guy who knows magic. There’s a god damn werewolf in this town that nobody cares enough to lynch. And, of course, there’s whatever shenanigans the transporter, Wally Franks, decides to pull on any given night.

Never in a million years did he think Drew would find him here. But the handwriting on the letters is impeccable, and unmistakable for anyone else’s. Unless this is some cruel joke by someone who  _ somehow  _ knows that he worked for the man before coming here, Joey Drew is alive and well.

Which is especially odd considering the last time he saw Drew, the man had been shoved into his own damn machine.

The letter that he received begs him to return to the studio one last time. Kevin reads the letter over his shoulder. “I didn’t know you used to work for an animation studio.”

“Well, I did,” Cole says, pushing his boyfriend a bit farther away. “Why are you reading it over my shoulder? You could just ask to read it. Don’t you usually bug Wally about his letters, anyway?”

“Wally won’t let me read his letters right now.”

“Well, that’s his own business then.” Cole skims the rest of the letter, noting the part where it says every other member of the studio who left before it shut down has also been contacted. He doubts anyone (except Henry and Wally) is going to be stupid enough to reply, if it’s even real and not a prank.

Then again…

“Do you think the boss will let me head down there to check this out?” Cole asks, trying to look nonchalant. “I’m curious to see what the madman’s been up to in the past few years, and it’d be good to see the others again.”

“Why does it say thirty years? It can’t have been thirty years,” Kevin says, bulldozing right on through Cole’s question. (He loves this man but sometimes he can be annoying.)

“It says thirty years because Mr. Drew is stupid, and doesn’t know how time works. It’s been more like six or seven years,” Cole answers.

It is at this moment that the ever-tactful Wally Franks bursts through the door, kicking it open. The door slams into the wall, and both mafia members cringe as the loud thud reverberates through the entire house. Cole sighs. “Wally. What is it now?”

“Did you get this letter too?” Wally demands, being far too loud for the comfort of either member. He throws a folded up letter on the table. “Cause otherwise I’m gonna have a  _ talk _ with your forger.”

“Is it from Drew?” Cole picks up the letter and skims it. Almost the same message, with a few changes to accommodate for how Wally was a janitor. “Yeah, I got this letter too. You think we should go down there?”

Wally is surprisingly quiet. Cole had half-expected either a very loud agreement or an even louder disagreement, but Wally actually thinking things through was new to him. “Maybe. Be nice to see Henry again, at least.”

“Mm.” Cole places the letter down. “I do have a very pressing question, though. Isn’t our  _ dear _ Mr. Drew supposed to be long dead?”

“That was sarcasm, right?” Kevin pipes in.

“Yes, Kevin. That was sarcasm. Joey Drew is universally hated by every single former Sillyvision employee. At least,” Cole adds, “the ones that didn’t drop off the face of the earth after it shut down. I have no idea where those people went. I assume they went somewhere where they thought Drew couldn’t find them, like I did.”  _ And it seems I was wrong about Drew not being able to find me here. _

“Oh,” Kevin says thoughtfully. “Can I come with you two to New York?”

Wally opens his mouth to reply. Cole cuts him off. “Absolutely not.”

“Wait, why can’t he come?” Wally asks, a bit confused.

“You remember how Drew was, don’t you?”

Wally nods, and then realizes what Cole means. “Oh. Joey wouldn’t like that.”

“Exactly.” Cole picks up the paper again, absentmindedly looking for imperfections. He finds none. “Besides, I haven’t really decided if I’m even going. I’d have to ask the boss, anyway.”

“Well, I’m going,” Wally says decisively. “If you make up your mind, let me know.” And with that, the ginger-haired New Yorker departs, leaving everything in much more of a mess than it started.

Cole frowns at the letter, crumpling it up slightly.  _ No matter what I choose, it’s not going to go over well. But I am curious about what Drew’s been up to. And god knows I haven’t talked to anyone who worked there in ages. _

He makes a mental note to think about it more later. He’s got work to do right now. “Kevin, shouldn’t you be somewhere?”

“Yeah, but I don’t really care about any of those stuffed-up old witches,” Kevin answers, grabbing the other letter from the table and reading it. “Wow. This Drew guy sounds weird. What made the studio go under, anyway?”

“Bankruptcy,” Cole answers. He does not elaborate, instead choosing to move to the floor and spread out the papers he was working on before the letter arrived.

Kevin eventually throws the paper down. “Why’d they go bankrupt? Weren’t they successful or something? At least in New York.”

“He spent all his money on a stupid machine that did nothing and flooded half the floors, and then his head animator quit,” Cole says. “A lot of people started quitting after that. Including me. Wasn’t worth sticking around for.”

“I see.” Kevin inspects the papers Cole is working on. “Who’re you investigating tonight?”   
“The survivor claim.” Though he’s not really focused on the papers anymore. “They seem a bit fishy. Might be an out-of-towner arsonist who thinks they can get away with it.”

“Could also just be paranoid,” Kevin suggests. “And you know that one guy, the one who never talks, he likes to douse the survivor claims.”

“To cover his own ass, yeah.” Cole snorts. “Never understood that.”

Kevin watches him in silence for a bit before standing up. “Boss is gonna kill me if I don’t do my work. I’ll see you around?”

“Yes.” Cole waves at him without looking up. He hears the hypnotist’s steps as he walks away from him. The door shuts with a finality that even the mafioso couldn’t match if he tried.

The silence is deafening after that. His mind keeps drifting back to the letters. Finally, after reading the same sentence about five times and still not understanding it properly, Cole pushes the papers away with a sigh.

He knows what he’s going to have to do in order to get closure.


	2. Not Again

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which people get kidnapped, Wally tries to convince Cole that they should drive two blocks to the studio, and Henry is found.

It’s not even a week after they decide not to go that the first kidnapping occurs.

It’s not someone either of them know well - it’s the survivor claim. She vanishes one day, and they don’t see her again. The spy says he saw someone take her. Cole is inclined to believe it.

Then a guardian angel goes missing. Then the medium. Then the arsonist. Then the blackmailer. 

And then Kevin vanishes.

_ Oh, it’s personal now, Joey,  _ Cole thinks bitterly to himself, as he steps off the train that had just taken him and Wally to New York City.

The studio isn’t too far away from the train station. They could easily walk. Wally still insists on driving. “It’s New York! Everyone drives like me!”   
“I heavily doubt that,” mutters Cole. “We’re gonna get arrested.”

“No we won’t,” Wally says.

“We’re not driving.”

“Fine,” Wally says, crossing his arms. “Have it your way.”

“I will. My way doesn’t get me arrested.”

***

As they stand outside the studio, Cole does everything in his power to act like he’s not terrified out of his mind.

He stands back when Wally pushes open the door. It creaks open, the smell of ink washing over them, and they both stand and gape at the doorway.

The studio entrance is absolutely  _ coated _ with ink. Actually, just the inside of the studio in general. A huge hole extends down to what Cole assumes used to be the utility shaft, and as he carefully enters and crouches down to look, he can see that it’s been drained.

Someone was here before them.

Wally peers over the edge with him. “That’s a bit of a fall.”

“No shit, Sherlock,” Cole replies, his voice shaky. “You think whoever fell down there is still alive?”

“Only one way to find out,” Wally replies, and then he jumps.

Cole immediately shuts his eyes, not wanting to see the aftermath of this. He expects to hear a crunch, or something of the sort, but after a few moments where he hasn’t heard anything like that, he hesitantly opens his eyes and peers down. Wally is standing there, fine as always. He waves up at Cole. “I found the answer!”

“Is the answer no?”

Wally grins. “Come down here and see this.”

Cole cringes. “Do I have to?” The thought of jumping down is somehow more terrifying than anything else he’s done with his life. Then again, there isn’t a way back up after he’s jumped. “Can’t I just...stay up here?”

“No, Cole, you gotta see this.” Wally seems very excited, puttering around just out of sight and messing with something. “It’s real cool.”

Cole hesitates for a moment more before carefully inching closer to the edge. He swings his legs over. However, he underestimates how slippery the ink is and ends up falling a lot sooner than he expected.

This fact is punctuated by the loud thud he makes when he hits the ground and  _ very _ heavy cursing. Wally snickers. “Shoulda just jumped, yeah?”

“Shut up,” Cole hisses. “I don’t like jumping down random holes as much as you do.”

Wally just smirks at him before holding up some sort of mechanical object. “Anyway, this is what I found. It looks kinda neat, doesn’t it?”

“Yes, yes, that’s all well and good,” Cole replies crossly, still clearly pretty upset over the whole “falling into a hole” thing, “but how are we going to get back up?”

“Oh,” Wally says quietly. He looks at the entrance to the hole, and then back at Cole. “I hadn’t thought of that.”

“Ooooof course you hadn’t,” Cole mutters under his breath. Frustrated, he kicks some leftover ink on the floor. “I guess we’ll have to look for another way out.”

Wally nods, and then points at a passageway that is literally dripping ink. “Maybe that’s the way out.”

“...no.” Cole gives him a look. “I am not going that way.”

“Aw, c’mon. This is an adventure! Have a little faith in me,” Wally says, throwing his arms out and turning to gesture at the passageway. “I’ve never led you wrong, have I?”

“Do you want the list of times you almost transported me into an attack, almost framed me for murder, and-slash-or outed me to some rando newcomer in alphabetical order?” Cole asks, in a monotone voice. He pulls out a notebook. “I have it right here.”

“Never mind,” Wally says quickly. “Maybe I have led you wrong a few times-”

“Over one hundred at my last count,” Cole interrupts.

“Okay, maybe more than a few, yeah? But it ain’t nothing that can’t be fixed with time, and we gotta get outta here somehow,” Wally reiterates. “And it’ll be fun!”

“Getting soaked with ink and possibly murdered by Joey Drew is not what I would consider fun.” Cole crosses his arms, then reconsiders when he realizes he’s got a fair bit of ink on him and he might ruin his notebook (currently his only source of blackmail on Wally). “And I have no desire to go on this adventure. I want to go get Kevin, and maybe Arden and Flint, and then we’re going home. Alright?”

“Yeah, but also, we gotta find the medium too,” Wally says. “Eli’s pretty nice. I like him.” Cole stares at him. Wally flushes bright red. “Not that I like him like- like that, or anything. He’s just a nice guy, a good guy, yeah? Doesn’t- He don’t deserve to get murdered,” he stammers out. “Yeah? We in agreement?”

Cole raises his eyebrows at Wally’s denials, but nods his head. “We can try to find the medium too, I guess. As long as it doesn’t take too long. We might not have all the time in the world.”

Wally nods silently, deciding that the best course of action here was to not say anything at all. A wise plan.

Cole sighs as he looks at the passageway. “However...I see your point about the passageway. I don’t think that there’s another way out of this room. So...let’s go, I guess.”

And with that, he walks through the doorway, Wally right on his heels. Cole grimaces at the feeling of ink dripping down his neck, but keeps walking anyway.

Eventually, the passageway opens out into another drained room, with a similar passageway as the sole exit from it. Once again, they trek through the dripping ink, and once again it leads to a drained room. Cole groans. “I hope this doesn’t repeat any more times.”

“I don’t remember this,” Wally mutters. “At all.”

“Weren’t you the janitor?”

“Yeah, but I quit before you did,” Wally points out. “So if anything, you should remember this.”

“I didn’t use the utility shafts. At all. That was the music department’s thing.” Cole glares down the passageway entrance. “Sammy was pissed the one time I did.”

“Fair enough,” Wally answers, and they continue on.

This time, the passageway leads to a hallway. Cole takes the lead, seeming a little more wary now. A single doorway is at the end, and Cole carefully pushes the door open and then steps back abruptly, almost slamming into Wally in his haste. “Holy shit.”

The room is dimly lit, candles laid out in a circle shape around a pentagram in the centre of the room. Five coffins line the wall, and both of them decide they don’t want to know what’s inside. An axe leans against one of the coffins, and Cole makes mental note of it.

In the middle of the pentagram lies a sandy-haired man covered head-to-toe in ink, glasses off to the side. He seems to be passed out. Wally pushes past Cole and crouches down next to the man, reaching out to touch him but then jerking his hand back.

Both of them speak at the same time.

“Henry?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so i have suddenly overcome some writer's block and i'm just gonna post these now instead of waiting. might be a bit sporadic because of this


End file.
